Posted by: Clayton Makepeace
June 9, 2008

The Death of Great Copywriting?

Dear Business-Builder,

Great sales copy doesn’t matter anymore.

Sure — it was important back in the Stone Age, when you had to pay a half-million dollars or more to mail your magalog to a million prospects.  But now with the free Internet, the strategy you use to build your list is everything. 

And if your strategy’s right, your copy doesn’t have to even be good — let alone great.

… Or that’s what some online marketing gurus seem to be saying these days.

And who’s to argue with them?  After all — their online marketing works like gangbusters — right?

Absolutely.  And most have Jeff Walker to thank.  Jeff is a certified marketing genius who has developed a kind of template for introducing new products online called Product Launch Formula. 

 Product Launch Formula teaches you to create sales campaigns that combine a story line replete with controversy and conflict … tons of freebies … I’ve lost track of how many kinds of proof elements and emotional triggers … blogs to identify and eliminate objections before any product is offered … plus scarcity selling, deadline selling and lots of other whistles and bells to create massive buying desire in prospects.

Brilliant  — right?

Why Product Launch Formula (really) works …

Now, I can’t say I’ve studied Jeff’s Product Launch Formula — but plenty of people on my staff have, and they’ve explained it to me.  And you know what?  Most of what Jeff teaches isn’t new at all.  Most is just plain old marketing common sense.  And frankly, I think Jeff would be the first to agree.

Jeff’s genius has been to meticulously bring tons of time-honored, tried-and-true marketing principles, strategies and tactics together into one comprehensive package that helps you make sure you tickle every hot button in your prospects’ heads and hearts.

You know:  The stuff well-trained copywriters do instinctively. 

So when I hear that Product Launch Formula works great even with anemic copy, I’m not surprised. But wouldn’t any sentient marketer also ask …

If this strategy works so great with lousy copy …
How much more money could I make with great copy?

Great sales copy is, by definition, a marketing multiplier.  Because it does a more thorough job of engaging prospects … creating maximum readership … triggering their dominant resident emotions … persuading them … and closing the sale, it amplifies the effectiveness of any marketing strategy.

So would better copy make product launches even more profitable?

Seems like a no-brainer to me!

I’d even go so far as to suggest that anyone who asserts that Product Launch Formula has rendered solid sales copy obsolete is leaving a TON of money on the table.

In fact, I’d hazard a guess that their weak copy is costing them at least three-fourths of the money they should be making.

Because while the biggest launch I heard of last year was pulling in a reported $20 million, I was generating four times more: 

A whopping $80 million in online sales.  From two lists that are about one-tenth the size of the affiliate lists most product launch marketer’s use.

Sure:  I used plenty of the principles Jeff recommends without having any idea I was doing so. 

I created campaigns that went on for four to eight weeks each.  I incorporated every type of proof available to me.  I hit all the emotional hot buttons I could think of.  I gave away tons of free content  — both in e-mails and in online teleconferences, webinars and videos.  And I also made liberal use of scarcity and deadline-based offers.

But instead of trusting my strategy alone to generate peak response and average sale, I labored over every e-mail, every script and every sales page as if the success of my campaign would be determined by the copy alone.

Put simply …

The success of Jeff’s Product Launch Formula equals
huge new opportunities for Web copywriters!

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a hundred times:  A new marketing medium or strategy or product bursts upon the scene.  The novelty alone creates huge sales.  But entrepreneurs being what they are, they soon begin wondering, “How could we take this to a higher level?”

Years ago, I met with Bill Guthy of Guthy-Renker infomercial fame.  At the time, they were making so much money with their infomercials, it had never occurred to them to market to the hundreds of thousands of new customers they were generating each year.

I suggested that by failing to market to their customer file, they were leaving as much as 90% of their potential sales on the table.  Today, most infomercial marketers are no longer making that mistake.

Now, I know for a fact that many product launch marketers are asking themselves, “How much more money could I be making with better sales copy?”  Some are even engaging freelance copywriters to ramp up readership and response to their campaigns.

This is a huge new opportunity for freelance copywriters — and an even better one for copywriters who partner with product launch marketers and take a percentage of the increase in sales they produce.

The key, of course, is to get the training necessary to actually ramp up response for your clients — whether they’re using Product Launch Formula or not.

Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,

Clayton Makepeace
Publisher & Editor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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16 Comments »

1. Comment by Chris Cade | Spiritual Stories & Parables — June 9, 2008 @ 2:34 pm

   I am currently enrolled in Jeff Walker’s PLF 2.0, and I have to agree entirely with you Clayton… except on one point:

   Lousy copy will *destroy* a good product launch.  Mediocre copy + PLF is a good combination, and Good/Great Copy + PLF is an amazing combination. 

   But lousy copy + PLF means that you shoot yourself in the foot immediately.  All it takes is a few bad sentences in a key email or blog post to turn that emotional trigger against you instead of for you.

   A decent copywriter won’t make that mistake, but a new copywriter or poor one can easily do it… thus negating pretty much all benefits derived from PLF.

2. Comment by Robert Hutchinson — June 9, 2008 @ 2:44 pm

   Clayton,

   Great post!  As you know, I heard Jeff speak at Rich Schefren’s Internet Marketing Conference last February in Orlando and have studied the Product Launch Formula, although not in depth (it’s hundreds of videos, it seems like).

   And I agree with you:  What Jeff teaches is classic copywriting technique… only instead of everything being contained in a single sales letter or landing page, the copy is spread out over dozens, even hundreds of emails.

   I think the reason why Jeff’s approach seems to work even with "ordinary" copy is this:  The interactive quality of his method forces lazy marketers (without any copywriting skills) to think through and articulate the benefits of their products and services, hit the right hot buttons and meet (and overcome) the main objections (proof).  In other words, when you follow PLF techniques, you’re forced to create a halfway decent sales promotion as you go.  It’s the interactive aspect of PLF — responding to questions, even redesigning the product according to what your prospects tell you they really want — that is the genius of PLF and email marketing generally, in my opinion.

   Thanks for the great report.  I’ve learn more about your copywriting techniques from Tony than I ever did from you!

3. Comment by lincoln ong — June 9, 2008 @ 2:49 pm

   jeff’s material is fantastic

4. Comment by Michelle Kapty — June 9, 2008 @ 2:49 pm

   I have been follwing Jeff Walkers Product Launch Formula for the last few months, reading and watching everything he shot at me.  I think it is great for the novice marketer who has no real copywriting skills, as it enables them to get their product out and to make an initial bunch of money.   I have actually found my own method to follow with what he’s done without actually paying for his exact formula. (but shhh…don’t tell him that )

   But I agree with Clayton that for the rest out there who do have the skills at writing great copy, it is only the icing on the cake to be able to combine the two and multiply those $dollars$.  I think no matter what you’re selling, the copy is going to do the selling for you no matter what formula or starategy you have. 

   Words are your most powerful commodity in selling.  No wonder Clayton is so darn good at what he does!

5. Comment by Tom — June 9, 2008 @ 5:30 pm

   Clayton what amazes me is why you tolerate shovel salesman…

   Ideas swiped from better men and only used after careful edit so as not to be found out…nothing more

   I have a 30 day challenge idea…

   Challenge any guru to a one on one marketing contest…

   Clayton VS ______________

   Wipe the floor with all of them and declare yourself king once and for all…

6. Comment by Dan Shaw — June 9, 2008 @ 10:57 pm

   Clayton you have hit the nail on the head.  NOTHING will ever take the place of good sales copy and plain good copywriting.    As for marketing and advertising there is nothing new.  Hasn’t been in years.  Just new ways of presenting the same old techniques used for the past century, if not longer.  Just like WEB 2.0 isn’t new, in fact the WWW was created just for socializing and sharing ideas between scientists and researchers.  Just the tools used to socialize have gotten better and better over the years till they are at a point anyone can use them.    Just as we have learned though a YouTube video may attract a lot of attention and a lot of hits to a site but if you do not have great sales copy it means nothing except maybe a boost one the SEO for site visitors.  I think of all the methods used as ways to get a horse to water but it’s the salescopy that will make the horse want to drink the water.  Unless the horse is mighty thirsty and needs the water no mater what, it will turn up it’s nose at water that smells foul or is muddy.  Get the horse to water that is clear, oxygenated because it is constantly flowing and they will drink every time.  Even if it’s a sip. 

7. Comment by Clayton Makepeace — June 10, 2008 @ 6:09 am

   You know you’ve got a winner when Bob Hutchinson — a former copy cub of mine who’s gone on to make millions in royalties on his own — says TONY is a better teacher than I am!

   Thanks for pointing that out, Bobber … you are 100% correctomundo!

   – Clayton

8. Comment by Seth Chong — June 10, 2008 @ 7:59 am

   Tony is in fact, legendary right out of the bag…

   With your guidance Clayton.

9. Comment by Lenny Eng — June 10, 2008 @ 8:45 am

   I think one thing you are truly missing here is the value of an existing relationship… conversion averages to a cold email list are around 0.3% while averages to a warm email list are somewhere around 2-5%…

10. Comment by David Grebow — June 11, 2008 @ 4:44 pm

    I had a printed piece of paper taped over my desk. It said in bold letters

    "When Times Are Tough, That’s When You
    Really Need A Great Copywriter"
    
    After reading your post, Clayton, and the Tony Flores The Great Copywriting Conspiracy , I tore the page off my wall …

    … and framed it.

    Seems like everyone is missing the critical part of the copywriting equation. Some call it imagination, others creativity. No matter what you call it, THAT is the secret to great copywriting …  and if there’s any conspiracy, it’s telling people who have neither, that they can skip over Copywriting 101, and sell like Crazy Eddy on the Internet.

    They also might as well forget everything they learned in English class. They probably already have, since most of the people using PLF 2.0 cannot even  write a simple declarative sentence (and if you don’t know what that means, I’m talking about you, Oh Mighty Genius).

    Lucky for them the templates are already done…

    Next we’ll have Product Launch Robot V 1.0 taking the place of salespeople. After all, what’s copywriting but selling with words … and if I can do it with software on the internet, I can do it in the real world with a robot.

    Good or great copywriting requires a mind that  can imagine the person to whom you are selling. Good or great copywriting demands creativity to be able to respond to the times in which we live.

    Oh crapola, here comes another REALLY bad economic downturn. Quick, it’s PLF 2.0 to the rescue.  Plug it in and just watch sales soar…

    … right out of site … into the deep dark sea of red ink.

    Like the now framed words say, when times are tough, that’s when you need a really great copywriter. Actually, now that I think about it, good to great human generated copy trumps software anytime.

11. Comment by Gerard LeBlond — June 11, 2008 @ 4:48 pm

    Product launches have been, and are currently,  used in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries as standard practice.Apple, IBM, Xerox, Sony, Yves St. Laurent, Jeff Koons, Disney and McDonalds are big in launching new products.So, the idea behind "Product Launches" isn’t new… but, the way Jeff Walker packaged it for online entrepreneurs was new insofar as most online marketers used "seat-of-the-pants" marketing and had no idea of the power that a great strategy with a heavy toolkit full of marketing tactics could give them.Jeff worked hard and smart. He laid out a time honored marketing strategy in a way that fit nicely for online selling and electron-fast communication of the internet.Nice step-by-step plans are always appreciated by solutions minded marketers, whether novices or experts.In fact, the Product Launch Formula basically takes Dan Kennedy’s sequential mailing direct response communication methods (which he explained in his "Magnetic Marketing" course) and applied it to the internet of the 2000s.But, as Clayton said, nothing beats top quality copy when it comes to persuasive communication and getting people to make the decision to trust you enough to place an order.Best regards,Gerard LeBlond 

12. Comment by Michelle Kapty — June 11, 2008 @ 5:23 pm

    Tom,
    if your comment to Clayton about taking an idea from a better man then editing it and not being found out  was directed at me, here’s my response to you:

    Jeff stated in his first 3 minute clip that I ever received about his PLF was that he was giving his clips out for FREE to help offer everyone some new ideas to help them generate more leads.  I have not created my own software based on his ideas or anything close to that because I’ve never seen his end product.  He talks about creating a squeeze page and maybe doing some pre-release emails to your list, prior to a launch of any kind.  Beyond that, I don’t know what or how he does it all.  I’ve simply taken some of his thoughts and added them to the IM expereince that I already have learned over the last few years,  and have polished up my strategies, that I came up with that work for my business.    I could care less how anyone else makes his info work for thier business.  I saw a total of 4 - 2 or 3 minute clips, and read his emails.   There was nothing to edit or take away from him.  I simply used what he did offer for free and worked it in with my own methods I already use.  And I’m sure I’m not the only one who did.  That’s why he offered those little tidbits for free.  To help.  He understood that not everyone can afford to purchase at that exact time.
    If someone is capable of reading between the lines of a 2 minute clip, that means they already know more than most do.  Nothing wrong with that.  That’s what he gave the info out for.

    And I was joking about not telling him.  Sheesh.  I already gave him my thoughts about it and thanked him months ago.   So it’s all good.

13. Comment by James — June 27, 2008 @ 12:05 pm

    I have a new site up and would appreciate any comments that might help a newbie claw his way
    up. I think this forum is a great place to cut your
    teeth so to speak, I learn something everytime I
    log on. Please everybody keep up the fantastic work.

    Regards,
    James

14. Comment by Rick Carter — June 28, 2008 @ 5:20 am

    You know what group uses “great copy” and PLF all the time, because they know they work?
    WIVES
    Think about it. Which statement gets results:
    “I need a new car.”
    -or-
    “The car I drive is getting old and I’m think it’s not safe anymore for the kids [BENEFIT, EMOTIONAL HOT BUTTON], and our budget says we can afford it [REDUCE RISK], and the neighbors just got a new Widget [SOCIAL PRESSURE], so let’s go this weekend - you’re off, right? [CONVENIENCE, CALL TO ACTION].”

    And PLF starts when you say “Well, let’s think about it.” After a few weeks of “look at this ad” or “see, Jim and Jen say their kids are so stress-free in their new Whammo-mobile” that you eventually cave and buy that new car.

    So I put forth that it’s not even open for discussion. Great copy will get get results every time. Talk to your wife about it. She’ll explain it!

15. Comment by James Daniel Hendrix — June 28, 2008 @ 12:21 pm

    I Guess I’m still a nobody.  Money always seems to be in my way.
    Money this Money that.  For a Nobody,  Getting started in any
    Business,  Requires Money.  I’m Just a Janator.  I make 298.00
    every two wks.  My Bills Exceed My Paychecks.  So why am I
    A nobody?  Well you can see why.  I Want to be rich,  But there seems to be A wall in my way.  But I will keep trying.  where their’s A will there’s A way.  To higher Profits, James D. Hendrix.

16. Comment by Brett — October 2, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

    Great (or even good?) copy is valuable … as is a list, a good product, etc.

    I’m a ‘fast fan’ of Clayton’s, having just tripped across this site a month ago, but the information and value he puts across allows his emails to be read when most others are unsubscribed in a blink.  (Something I will aspire to!)

    My comment above touches on my feeling that it’s a whole system, right?  I (we / all of us) need great copy.  We also need a way to attract people (and targeted people at that) to our copy so they’ll actually read it and, of course, once reading it, our product / service has to be good enough to make them glad they bought it.

    Every step has to be worked on a perfected, as I guess Clayton touches on when he talks about how we works over each aspect of his ‘launch’ as if success depends on it.

    The one thing I take from this article is what small change could you make to make a BIG difference?  (And don’t stop asking that question.)

    Best,
    Brett.